Weapons, warfare and industrial idiocy

The Wisdom of Professor Seagull

"It is the duty of the bohemian to make a spectacle of himself. If my informality leads you to believe that I am a rum-dumb or that I belong in Bellevue, then hold fast to that belief; hold fast, and show your ignorance."

Joseph Ferdinand Gould (1889-1957)

Cold War Reenactors

"We rely upon the good will of our fellow man - and the forbearance of reptiles."

"WOW" (Wisdom of Wally)...

Lot's of different pics of this sign.

"I don't make hell for nobody. I'm only the instrument of a laughing providence. Sometimes I don't like it myself, but I couldn't help it if I was born smart."

1st Sgt. Milton Anthony Warden."From here to Eternity"

Paul Valery

"You are in love with intelligence, until it frightens you. For your ideas are terrifying and your hearts are faint. Your acts of pity and cruelty are absurd, committed with no calm, as if they were irresistible. Finally, you fear blood more and more. Blood and time."

The Wisdom of the Ages

"When a young man, I read somewhere the following: God the Almighty said, 'All that is too complex is unnecessary, and it is simple that is needed',"

Saturday, August 16, 2008

BEYOND THE SCREAMING MONKEY...

Is that title boss or what?Screaming monkeys abound, in the world on kuckledusters.Unclear on the SM thing, go here. We'll wait.I've racked my brain this past few weeks trying to wrap my head around some kind of coherent "story" of knuckles.The fact is, as I'm probably late to discover, that there simply isn't much history to them.They've been around since God was a boy, but no one thought to record the progression of this important, complex mechanism.It might be because they're not complex mechanisms, probably not 'mechanisms' at all - but I don't care about that right now.My feeling is this: The plates that old Al wore on his hands, a few posts back, would pass for modern knucks in better-than-dim light.and vise-versa.In fact, the first time Ice Age Guy #1 had a hard-on for Ice Age Guy #2, his first impulse may have been to try some field-expedient version of the same concept.Anyway, I've lost all will to try and tackle this topic, especially since I really just want to show cool pictures.So, I'll shut-up now...Four in aluminum, the "wonder metal" of the day...Now, some actual "brass knuckles". These may have all been home-made but one obviously is and another is also a strong contender.All, seemingly heavy, T-handles.Speaking of heavy, some lead knuckles.Most show the type of damage one would expect from so soft a metal.The one at lowest left looks like either it went for the jaw a time of two, - or got run over by the car in a gravel driveway.His neighbor to the right, that's another story.This is, as we used to say, back in the "Tacky Era", a "Cherry-boy". He's never hit anything stiffer than a breeze.If is is lead, and I'm sure it is - whoever owns it would certainly know - it would show any use..It does seems to be cast from a common pattern.Hell, maybe it was made in a factory.The "One-Use, Disposable knuckleduster".There have been worse ideas. Truth be told, the majority of these pictured were, in actuality, one-use or "none-use" KD's.However, not so fragile are its (our friend, "Cherryboy's") neighbors.They all seem like some sort of charming folk-art to me (insane) and the top two especially...Okay, anthropomorphising here, the top two hit me as Felix Unger and Oscar Madison.

On that note - one step shy of singing show tunes ("I'm as corny as Kansas in August...") -I'll bail, with a few more pictures. THE WORD MUST BE SPREAD!On an unrelated subject, all photos in this post were flagrantly ripped-off from the Yahoo group "Brass Knuckle Collector's Club".Join up. Come to love these little artifacts. Of course, if you do, you're a sicko.The site I linked to above does indeed have the most and best pictures of the old ones you're likely to find.Elsewhere... lots of "belt-buckles" and "paperweights".